Choosing a bow

This section is aimed at all new archers and especially new archers/members who have recently completed a Beginners Course.

We suggest you take your time over buying a bow - our beginners bows are normally available for a few weeks after your course ends, plus, we have hire bows which will allow you to progress a bit further and build up your technique and knowledge of what bow style you might want to concentrate on as you start your archery journey.

Please speak to the Equipment Officer, or anyone on the Committee if you're interested in hiring a bow, which is always recommended before you buy your own.

Don't forget to speak to other club members about their bows and get as much information as possible, maybe even try some members bows if they're within your current draw weight ability.

When you’re ready to purchase your own bow, the first consideration is of course the bow style that you want to shoot and please do remember, for all styles, the most important thing is that you DO NOT ‘over-bow’ yourself – which means; don’t buy a high poundage bow thinking or assuming you’ll 'grow into it' because the opposite is more likely to happen. Going out and buying a high poundage bow or limbs is likely to be the single biggest mistake to make and quite possibly the worst possible thing to do.

If you buy a bow, or limbs, which are too heavy (high poundage) for you then it will almost certainly mean;

you will struggle with the weight after a few arrows/ends,
you will struggle with your form and technique,
you will find it very difficult to correct issues,
you will likely fall into bad habits if you 'over bow' yourself.

Far better to start with a lighter bow and get your form right, before moving up. Hence why we offer those just off a Beginners Course the opportunity to continue with their beginner bows, then move on to a hire bow for a few months after that. This allows you the chance to develop good technique/form and increase the amount of poundage you can correctly draw for a whole shooting session, not just the first few ends.

For reference, a 20lb bow can shoot out to 50-60 yards without issue. In fact one of our Warren Only members got his 252 badge at 100yards using a barebow with 28lb limbs. Proving higher poundage bows or limbs are not the answer to better groups, higher scores, or the ability to shoot longer distances. There are always more points to be gained by getting your technique correct and consistent than there are to buying higher poundage limbs, more expensive arrows, sights, risers, etc..

There are many different bow styles available, you may have an idea what you want to shoot, or you may not. The club is affiliated to AGB and thus follows the AGB bowstyle rules, which are (very briefly):

Compound: A compound bow limited to 60lb maximum draw weight, can be shot off the fingers (compound barebow no sights) or with a release aid with sights. Multi-pin sights are not allowed in competitions, nor are laser targeting/battery powered components. Any arrows may be used.
Recurve (or Olympic Recurve): A recurve bow, typically but not always with a metal riser, shot off the fingers and usually with a tab. Will have a sight, may also have any or all of the following; pressure button, clicker, stabilisers, magnetic/metal/plastic arrow rest, a fibre optic sight pin, or glow pin. However, no battery powered components, magnifiers, or other sight aids are allowed in competition. Any arrows may be used.
Barebow: A recurve style/appearance bow, without sights, typically but not always with a metal riser, shot off the fingers with a tab. May have pressure button and weights, but excluding the string the assembled bow must fit through a 12.2cm ring (4 & 13/16"). No clickers, battery powered items, or other aids allowed. Any arrows may be used. String walking is allowed.
Traditional bow: A recurve looking/style bow, where the riser must at least be partially made of wood, shot off the fingers with a tab. Only a plastic arrow rest is allowed (or it can be shot off the shelf), no pressure button, sights, clickers, add-on weights, stabilisers, or battery powered accessories are allowed. Any arrows may be used. String walking is not allowed (but face walking may be permitted, just not on the same target being shot).
Flatbow (or American Flatbow): A single piece wooden non-recurve bow (limbs are in simple arc when strung) with flat profile limbs, shot off the fingers with a tab. No sights, clickers, or any other accessories are allowed. Arrows must be shot off shelf, and must be made of wood (bamboo is not wood!). Bows can be manufactured with internal weights, but add on (external) weights cannot be added. String walking or face walking is not permitted.
Longbow (or English Longbow): A single piece wooden bow with a D or oval shaped cross section, shot off the fingers with a tab or glove and often a glove on the bow hand. Nothing extra, pure Robin Hood type shooting. Arrows must be made of wood (bamboo is not wood). String walking or face walking is not permitted.
Asiatic: A short, horse bow style bow. Can be shot off fingers with a tab or more traditionally by using a thumb ring. Nothing extra. Arrows are typically made of wood for more traditional shooting style events, such as 'Roving', but carbon, or composite arrows are permitted at some events. If you want to go full on traditional your string will only have one nocking point on it.

Club Hire Bows

We have a number of hire bows - which are a step up from the wooden beginners bows, for instance - metal risers (handles), slightly to notably higher poundage limbs (as and when you're ready to move up in poundage), and better arrows. We do recommend that you buy your own finger tab (e.g. Avalon classic tab) and bracer (often called an arm guard).

Hire bows:

Typically hired for up to 6months, with a maximum hire of 1 year.
Security deposit £75 providing all equipment comes back to us this will be returned to you.
Hire fee £5 per month and paid by standing order.

Before Buying Your First Bow

Rule 1: Get some advice from club coaches, experienced archers, and or from a reputable shop and DO NOT 'over-bow' yourself with a high draw weight.

The internet can be useful for some information, but you'll often find conflicting advice. You will want to buy a bow that will last you for a few years, not a few months.

Rule 2: Set a budget. Being sensible, a reasonable 1st bow can be bought for around £200 (perhaps a bit more for compound), however, depending on bow style you will need to budget for other items, as discussed below. Beware of beginner’s kits, which can be bought quite cheaply, but where the quality of some parts might not be what you want. Rough prices for a set of half decent equipment, which you can then upgrade over time might be:

Compound: £400-£500
Barebow/Recurve:£350-£450
Traditional: £200-£300
Flatbow:£250-£350
Longbow: £300-£400
Asiatic: £200-£300

Rule 3: Try before you buy. Compounds are generally, but not always, fixed in draw weight and draw length, so don't usually offer quite the same levels of adjustment as a barebow/recurve. You may get 6-10lb adjustment in a more expensive compound bow and or you should be able to replace the limbs to increase draw weight, but your first bow may have little or no adjustment.

Longbows, Flatbows and Asiatic are also fixed! It may be advisable to stick with a barebow/recurve until your draw length and technique has settled a bit.

Recurves (with sights) and Barebow are perhaps the easiest to shoot and upgrade; buy the best riser you like and can afford as the limbs can be changed as required, bear in mind most archers will never 'outshoot' a good quality Recurve or Barebow riser.

Ideally speak to coaches/experienced archers and go to a reputable shop, listen to the advice at the shop and get the bow set up properly for you and shoot it. Make sure you're comfortable with it, if something doesn't seem right ask more questions, or try a different bow, or even walk away and try a different shop - never feel you have to buy from the first shop you visit.

If it's a 2nd hand bow, try and take someone who knows about them with you.

Rule 4: Repeated, because this so important! Do not be a hero with big draw weights and DO NOT 'over-bow' yourself. You might be able to draw the bow a few times, but think about whether you could do the same after 100, or more, arrows.

Don't be afraid of lower draw weights for your first bow/limbs, they allow you to develop good form without fighting the bow, or worse, injuring yourself.

If you can't hold steady on every draw of the following sequence, including the last one, you're likely to be 'over-bowed'.

Draw and hold the bow at anchor for seven seconds,
Come down to 'set' position and take one breath,
Draw and hold the bow at anchor for seven seconds,
Repeat this until you have come to anchor six or even seven times.

If at the sixth or seventh time of coming to anchor, you can hold steady with a good aim, then you are not 'over-bowed'. However, if you are not comfortable at holding and having a good aim on your sixth or seventh time at anchor, then you are probably 'over-bowed' and you should consider buying something with a lighter poundage.

Rule 5: Enjoy yourself, shoot lots, and improve.

Rule 6: Accept that you will spend more over the coming months and years. There will always be new toys to get.

Rule 7: Perhaps the most important rule of all. Never ever, ever, tell your other-half the true value of how much you spend on archery equipment. What gets spent in archery club, stays in archery club. It only takes one person to slip up and we're all for the high jump.

What you will be buying

Riser/bow

Longbow / Flatbow / Horsebow(Asiatic): Clearly, these are one piece, and because of that their draw weight cannot be increased, so don’t over-bow yourself. You can always stick with recurve or barebow until your form and strength allow you to buy a heavier bow.

Compound: Do your research, speak to other Compound archers at the club, spend what you can on the bow, and remember you can upgrade other parts as you go.

Recurve: Spend what you can on the riser and if possible a good quality sight as these will last you a long time, the riser may last you for the whole of your archery journey, so buying well can mean and buying once. As an absolute minimum, buy a riser with adjustments either side of the limb pocket so you can ensure you can get a good setup on the bow. Often the cheapest recurve risers will not have a limb pocket adjustment facility, so it's best to avoid these if you can. Ideally, go for an ILF (International Limb Fittings) riser as ILF limbs are more widely available. If you opt for a manufacturer specific limb fitting, you may well be restricted to their limbs only, some of these can be quite pricey too, so an ILF riser will give you more options and still allow you to go from budget friendly limbs to bank balance bashing top end limbs once you've built up to a limb weight that is likely to remain on your riser for a long time, i.e. years, rather than months.

Barebow: There are specialist risers for barebow. Probably a good idea to use a standard riser at first, to work out how you want your weight distribution, before buying a more expensive riser. Talk with other seasoned Barebow shooters at the club, there are good makes out there which don't cost the earth but still give you lots of options.

Traditional: Typically a wooden riser that looks similar to a wooden barebow but without weights or pressure button, sometimes shot without an arrow rest. Like barebow, probably a good idea to use a standard riser as a first bow until you get a better feel for the style and what you might want when considering a more expensive riser. Talk with seasoned Traditional shooters at the club before buying your first, or even second/final riser.

Compound additional items

Release aid (£100)
Buy a reasonable one and it will last you a long time.

There are many different types of release aid, but for your first one go for a thumb trigger, or possibly a wrist release which is triggered using your index finger.

Do not use a back tension or hinge release aid as your first release aid. These are better left for when you have good and consistent shooting form, and if you don’t know what you’re doing can fire unintentionally. Which for the avoidance of doubt is a very bad thing.

Sight/Scope/Peep sight (£60+)
The sight attaches to the bow (riser) and provides the archer with an aiming reference point. Sights for compound usually compromise of a mounting block that attaches to the bow, a metal or carbon extension bar, and an elevation bar to adjust the vertical position of the reference point (sight pin).

For compound bows most use a scope rather than a simple sight pin. This is a housing which contains a magnifying lens to view the target. The amount of magnification is a personal choice, but many scopes will come with a 4x lens which can be changed if you prefer more/less magnification.

Note that the sight will not include a scope which is usually bought separately, so you will need to budget for both.

Due to the added weight of a lensed scope and the extra ‘oomph’ that a compound shoots with, compound sights are usually built with stronger (and heavier) materials. So, it is important to get the right sight for the style of shooting you prefer. i.e. don’t use a recurve sight on a compound bow. It may work initially, but most likely it will soon rattle itself loose (or break into pieces).

For compound, a peep sight is also used. The peep sight is a small plastic or metal insert that sits in the bow string which has a hole in it. It allows you to look through the string at full draw to see your sight and target for aiming. They are relatively inexpensive for a basic one, though spending a few pounds more often gets a peep sight that allows you to screw-in inserts to change the peep sight size or even add a lensed insert.

If you are a glasses wearer, it may be better to spend the extra on a peep sight that allows this. Often glasses wearers suffer a blurred image as a result of the lens in the scope working with the lens in the glasses. Adding a peep sight lens (called a clarifier) may help sharpen up the image.

Arrow rest/Launcher (£40+)

Arrow rests for compounds are different to those used on recurve. The two main types are blade rest (often called a launcher) and a drop-away rest. The blade/launcher type uses a forked spring steel blade (similar in shape to a lizards tongue) to rest the arrow on. The tension (springiness) of the blade is usually adjustable so it can be set up for the type (size/weight) of arrow you are shooting.

The drop-away rest does exactly as it says, it drops away. This is a mechanical rest that raises during the drawing of the bow to hold the arrow in the correct position, this moves out of the way during the release so as not to interfere with the flight of the arrow.

For a compound, it is recommended to start with a blade/launcher. They are much simpler to set up and there is less to go wrong with them.

Recurve additional items

Limbs (£60+)
Start light, start cheap, £60-£70 limbs can take you a long way. Some shops do limb swaps, but you can buy/sell on eBay quite easily. Most low end limbs are partially made of wood. They can be excellent, but remember to pack your bow away after each use, as just like a wooden bow, they can start to take the shape of the strung bow, which means they can lose their power if left strung for long periods of time.

Sight (£60+)

Don't bother with the cheapest sights, start at around £60 - something like the Avalon Recurve Sight Classic Pro or Avalon Tec One, at this price range are good mid range sights that should last you a good time. Just like spending what you can on a good riser, spend what you can on a good sight as this and the riser may well last for many years of your archery journey if not the whole of your archery journey.

Tab (recurve/flatbow/longbow £10 - £50+)
Buy a reasonable one, but you’ll probably need to play with a few different styles. If you shoot 2 under, i.e. one finger above the string and two below, then make sure the finger separation works (at full draw) ensure the separator keeps your fingers away from the arrow. Cut any excess material away from the leathers.

Sizing - see the helper here - make sure you print this as actual size! Fivics Tab Size guide

Finger/wrist sling (Also a good idea for compound)
These are a good addition and should ideally be used as early as possible into your archery journey to allow you to learn to 'not grip the bow'. Alternatively a very cheap option is to use an old shoe lace, an experienced archer or a coach can show you how to tie a shoelace finger sling.

Pressure button/clicker/rest (£40+)
Again, get your form right before adding these. Top level competition scores and National Records can and have been shot from a plastic stick on rest, so don't think you need a metal stick/bolt on rest to start with. You can add pressure button to give you fine tuning even with a plastic stick on rest. Only add a clicker once your draw length and form has really settled down, at which point switching to a metal rest may be worth considering as the clicker will stop the arrow sliding/falling off the rest mid-draw.

Stabilisers, i.e. long rod/side rods/v-bar/extenders (£50+)
Adding these too early can hide problems with your form. See if you can borrow some to try before you buy. They add balance, but also weight to the bow, so be careful that you don’t go too heavy too soon. You can shoot with a long rod for a while (years) before adding side rods. Speak to a coach and other club members who use them, again you don't 'need' to spend a lot on these, some very good value about

All bows

Arrows (Aluminium £35+, Carbon £45+, Wood £50+, Composite £100+)
Barebow, Recurve and Compound: Start with some aluminium arrows – as you change limbs, or increase poundage, and your form changes, you’ll need to change arrows, so don’t start with expensive ones, as you’ll likely be buying new ones within the year, especially if you shoot lots and you increase your bow/draw wight significantly. You only really need to move to Carbon or Composite (Aluminium & Carbon) arrows when you get serious or when you start to need the lighter arrows to achieve longer distances.

Others: Buy wooden arrows that are correct for your bow weight!

Never shoot a wooden arrow with a compound bow, it could cause the arrow to break on release and cause serious injury.

Check before buying all carbon arrows - some venues and competitions won’t let you shoot them, as they are hard to find with a metal detector, although Overton Black Arrows do allow all carbon arrows at Laverstoke, The Warren and Testbourne.

When choosing arrows it is important to select arrows of the correct spine (stiffness) for the style, draw weight and draw length you're shooting. A reputable shop will be able to advise you in more detail, but to get an idea of the ‘correct spine’ arrows you need, you can often refer to manufacturer spine charts or arrow selection charts. These allow you to look up what spine should work for you, based on your bows draw weight and your draw length. Talk to a coach, or experienced archer, at the club for help, advice and information about arrow spine and how to measure your bows draw weight, and your draw length, both of which the coaches at Overton Black Arrows can help you with.

Lots of archery shops will supply arrows in sets of 8 or 12. A set of 8 is plenty for your first set. This allows you to be able to shoot 6 arrow ends and have a couple of spares in case you lose or damage an arrow.

One important thing to remember when getting your first set of arrows is that they should be a good 1" if not 2" longer than your draw length. This ensures you don’t over draw the arrow past the arrow rest/launcher which can cause you or someone else a serious injury. We can always help/show you how to cut down your arrows if they really are too long, but making arrows longer means buying a new set!

Other

Some other things you’ll also need, or may want to get:

Bracer (sometimes called an arm guard)
Quiver (you may prefer a field quiver, ask someone to show you the difference, if you like Field & or 3D archery you'll almost certainly be better off getting a field quiver rather than a target quiver, trust us on this)
Arrow puller (almost essential when your limb/bow weight increases, but always useful to have anyway)
Bow stand (you won’t want to put your shiny new bow on the floor)
Pocket notebook (to record your bow setup, sight marks, shopping lists) - although there is an App for all of that nowadays!
Bow bag/case
Some new clothes - for outdoor shooting, you'll need close fitting base layers, and for indoor and outdoor shooting you'll want close fitting clothing to avoid catching the bow or string when shooting, footwear should not be open toed and if you like Field & or 3D then hiking boot/shoe type footwear is likely to be better than trainers